Japanese IDN

[gardenplant]

Hello,

I was just wondering about Japanese IDNs, do you have to live in or have business associated with Japan in order to register a Japanese domain?. I was wondering if not, could I register one, and which registrars do this service? Obviously I will need to register romanji characters as I don't understand Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji. Also am I right in thinking the major extension in Japan is .co.jp?

If anyone can clear all this up for me I'd be very grateful.

 

[thefabfive]

IDNs are domains written in native languages. Some examples of Japanese IDNs are:

日本.com
ゲーム.net
旅行.jp

Domains like nihon.com are not considered IDNs. There are no restrictions on Japanese IDNs that I am aware of. You can register them in .com, .net, and .jp (and several other ccTLDs).

.co.jp currently does not allow IDNs. And registration of a .co.jp is restricted to one domain per business IIRC.

 

[Olney]

Also co.jp is one per business, but it must be a registered company in Japan.
.jp is not so strict.

 

[rhys]

For Japan I think that .jp is going to turn out to be the prime extension. It is also far less restrictive on registrants. Again you should look into IDNs, Japanese script domains in kanji, hiragana, or katakana as the ones in romaji do not get traffic and post IDNs won't be worth much (with exceptions). The Japanese also use .com / .net and for adult sites not uncommon to see .tv being used. Hope that helps.

 

[gardenplant]

Arigato gozaimasu!!!!

Thank you all very much, (rep added), That has cleared everything up for me. I can now consider this thread closed.